Boot up problems - nothing on screen!

My 6 month old MBP with the latest firmware update suddenly stopped botting today. I placed it in sleep and then tried to wake it a few hours later. The battery was not flat. The light by the releae button comes on and I hear the DVD drive spin up but nothing comes up on the display.
I have tried the support pages here http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303234 but nothing seems to work.
Any ideas as I really don't want to send it back as I have lots on my drive that I cannot now backup.

My suggestion is to take it to a service technician and ask them to carefully remove the hard drive and put inside a 2.5" Firewire hard drive case such as the ones from http://www.macsales.com/
That way, you'll have control over the hard disk.
Maybe even get that case first.
http://www.apple.com/uk/buy/ has a listing of authorized service providers who can do it.
And when you are done, you can use the migration assistant to reimport the data back that was in that drive.
Be careful not to drop that drive as the cases don't take a beating that well.
In the future always backup your data as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Similar Messages

PXI 8184 system boots up - shows nothing on screen

Hi All,
I recently found our NI PXI-8184 in our company and I wanted to test if we can use the device for our testing purposes.
The first time, I got to its BIOS. I saw the system date was resetted to 1988. I did make some changes on boot options, saved and exited bios. I was able to loging WindowsXP and run LabView.
After turning off the unit, unplug power cable. I removed the PXI-8184 to check on its battery. I found its bios battery voltage is 0 (technically no charge). I got a new battery (3V) and plugged into the system.
Once the power is turned on, there is nothing showing on screen, only black screen. The power LED is ON, LED lights for ethernet cable are ON (one is solid, one is blinking), the Drive LED is off (the hard drive is not even accessed). I checked the hard drive with my external encloser, it seems everything is ok. I can read files from hard drive from my laptop through an external encloser.
I suspect there is something wrong with BIOS. I did reset BIOS by moving jumper to a new location and setting it back to its original place.
The screen shows nothing on bootup, I think the bios is not even loaded.
Any help/inputs to help me to solve this problem would be helpful. Thanks for your replies and inputs.
PS: The Switch Configuration at the moment is Switch1 is ON position (Boot LabView RT) and other switches are in OFF positions

Yes. That was the only change. With the old battery (zero charge voltage), same behavior with black screen.
I am not sure whether or not the last bios save did have affect on bios firmware (may some corrected parts of firmware ? )
Thanks for your reply.

G5 boots but displays nothing on screen and sometimes white screens and boots from CD. Help?

I have a G5 (1.8 Ghz/DP/8GB RAM) and it has a problem.
When it does show something on screen it shows a white screen and will boot from a CD (OS X or Linux) but when it doesn't it show anything on screen and the fans rev up (This happens whether is shows nothing or white screens) Does anyone know how to fix this?
PS: When it boots from the CD everything works fine.

Backup your data if you have a successful boot. You have no idea what may be damaged or not.
See this data recovery routine if needed:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689

My MacBook pro won't recognize hard drive I put in it. It boots only to a white screen unless I boot to my recovery USB. If I do that then I can select my USB and my external time machine drive in the disk utility, so no problems there. But what do you

My MacBook pro won't recognize hard drive I put in it. It boots only to a white screen unless I boot to my recovery USB. If I do that then I can select my USB and my external time machine drive in the disk utility, so no problems there. But what do you think it is? It won't recognize any hard drive I put in the machine, so might it be the sata cable?

Boot the Recvoery USB, use Disk Utility to select the internal drive makers namea and size on the left.
Now select erase and select the midde option and click erase, it will take a bit to complete but it's best for the drive.
Now select Partiton tab, click the big box and Options: GUID and then Format: OS X Extended journaled and click apply.
Quit and you should be able to install OS X now with your Apple ID and password.
see
http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/08/lion-recovery-disk-assistant-tool-makes-external- lion-boot-recovery-drives/

HT1766 My iPad will not boot up. When I press the on/off button, nothing black screen. Does anyone have a suggestion?

My iPad will not boot up. When I press the on/off button, nothing black screen. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Try reset iPad
Hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears
Note: Data will not be affected.

Beige G3 boot from **** problem; open firmware issues; bad motherboard?

Dear all,
I'm having huge boot/startup problems with my beige G3 that had been happily running OSX 10.3.9, but for purposes of this discussion we can (mostly) revert to OS 9. Originally, the machine was a G3 @300; was upgraded more than a year ago to a ZIF G4 @500.
To make a long story short, it won't boot from any hard drives, will not boot from any OS X CD, and will only occasionally boot from a 9.x startup CD (whether Apple or Norton Utilities). I think it's an open firmware issue, possibly caused by a bad motherboard (rev. 2).
All this started happening after I used techtool pro, but I think that's coincidence (even though I acknowledge that, for cops and computer users, there are no coincidences.) Also, as discussed below, I'm having the same problems with an HD that wasn't even in the computer when all these things began.
Here are some of the things I've done.
--repeatedly reset PRAM, both with key combinations and removing battery. The only time it will boot from a 9.x CD is after resetting PRAM.
--removed all add-on PCI cards.
--removed additional VRAM
--removed all memory cards and tried replacing one at a time.
--disconnected both existing hard drives and replaced with an older OS 9.x hard drive (approx 60 mb) that I'd used before. Also tried different ribbon cables.
--unplugged floppy drive
--disconnected PCI ATA disk controller that I'd been using for running a large (1.8 gb) hard drive.
--regarding open firmware: readenv usually shows totally normal default AND installed settings. Using reset-all works fine -- at least it makes the machine reboot, but doesn't solve the problem. reset-nvram does NOT work -- says it's an "unknown word."
--using startup keys like holding down the option key, or shift key, or X key or cmd-option plus two others I can't remember, has no effect. Again, after I've tried any kind of reboot, the ONLY way to get the C-key at startup to boot the CD is by resetting the pram (key combination). Otherwise, the usual result of these experiments is a dark screen on startup -- nothing at all (and the LCD monitor tells me "no input.")
--regarding OSX: sometimes (and I emphasize sometimes) I can get the machine to start booting from an OSX 10.2 CD, but it won't complete the process. Sometimes I get a "prohibited" (as in no-parking, no-smoking) icon; sometimes it will start booting (grey screen, OS X Apple icon), then crash (horizontal grey and white jagged bars); sometimes it will show the OS 9 start icon (the tiny smiling Mac SE), but not boot at all.
--when I get the mac successfully booted with an OS 9.x CD (again, this works sometimes, but not always), the old hard drive with two partitions does show on the desktop and can be accessed. Using either disk repair or Norton Utilities shows the 9.2 system partition on the hard drive to be fine. But if I go to the startup disk control panel, confidently set the 9.2 partition as my startup disk, then reboot, there's no change. It won't boot and I'm back at square one.
--even when I do get successfully booted with 9.x, the machine will still occasionally crash for no reason -- ie when I'm moving a Window.
--the only thing I haven't done is slowed down the processor. It's a ZIF G4 bought more than a year ago from XLR8 your Mac. I'm running at the default 500 mhz, and it's never given me any trouble.
So I think it's a bad motherboard or ROM. Thoughts?
Thanks.

The beige Mac is now operating happily again. My original tentative diagnosis remains the same (although still tentative): corrupted PRAM from bad battery, compounded by bad cables that wrote corrupted data to hard drives, and also (possibly) allowing Tech Tool Pro (a utility that I now regard with deep suspicion) to create a "virtual" startup partition.
A few things I've learned along the way that hopefully may be useful:
--remember that the Ex Post Facto utility can be used to help OS X startup, not just installation. This applies to hard drives, emergency CDs, installation CDs, etc. If you can boot into any working hard drive partition (OS 9 or a backup OS 10), then run Ex Post Facto (same program runs on either OS 9 or X -- don't ask me how) and tell it what system you want to start up from. Also, the utility has sometimes told me that the startup extensions on the disc that I wanted to boot up from were bad, and offered to fix them (which works).
--at least on my Mac (beige, v. 2 motherboard), resetting the CUDA button, resetting the PRAM, resetting Open Firmware and "draining" the memory by unplugging the computer and disconnecting the battery for several hours ALL DO DIFFERENT THINGS.
Specifically, if I'm having trouble booting (from a hard drive or a CD), the FIRST thing I do is restart and resetting the PRAM on the fly -- holding down command, option, P and R at startup, and waiting for the chimes (preferably at least 3-4 times).
If I do that and DON'T hear the chimes, that's my cue for my SECOND action -- restarting into open firmware (command, option O and F keys on startup). That should bring up the black text on white background open firmware screen. View other posts or apple support for details, but if you do PRINTENV and see a bunch of weird gibberish after the default/installed lists, you know that it was messed up and you need to clear it through reset nvram and reset all commands. Be aware some of these commands do or do not work depending upon what version of Open Firmware you have.
After I've rebooted with Open Firmware, then on restart I should be able to reset the PRAM on the fly. If that works, then either let the machine run and see what happens, or hold down the C command and see if it will boot from the CD
Usually, if I've fixed everything as above, the machine will boot into whatever version of OS 9 it finds on a hard drive. That's fine with me -- at that point, use Ex Post Facto to reboot into your OS X. (Before I forget: I used the shareware startup CD creator program BootCD to make an emergency boot CD based on OS 10.2.8 (which theoretically will support a beige mac in native fashion) and Disk Warrior, the god of disk repair utilities. Even though the CD should boot just by holding down the C key on startup, it doesn't -- but if I use Ex Post Facto to boot it, no problems (although the process is very slow -- be patient). Then I can fix almost anything using Disk Warrior.)
If none of the above works, then I'll try resetting the CUDA (on my beige minitower, it's a very small black button inconveniently located between a PCI slot and the side of the computer housing). Hold it down for 15 seconds. That should REALLY clear the PRAM. I know this does something different from the previous steps because this is the only action (except the battery disconnect -- next) that clears the date and time from the memory.
If all else fails, I will unplug the computer and disconnect the battery, then push the CUDA button for 15 seconds and let the machine sit overnight.
One final finding -- I thought I'd fixed everything, but both my hard drives suddenly quit working, I discovered that during all this repeated connect/disconnect of things, one of the male pins inside one of the connectors on my Acard ATA PCI card had broken off. Not good. Fortunately, the card had a second connector, which works fine. And I did some extensive shaking of the computer to make sure (I hope) that the broken pin hadn't landed on a circuit board.
All this took more than two weeks, and the advice of this board was much appreciated. Now I'm on to my next adventure -- trying to figure out why a combo Firewire/USB PCI card won't mount an external drive on Firewire, but will on USB. I've tried two cards with same result -- but a Firewire-only card works just fine.)
Regards to all,
Graham

Will not boot up to log in screen

will not boot up to log in screen when powered up, all I get is a grey screen with apple logo in middle and spinning timer
I have tried resetting SMC
I have tried starting up in Safe Mode (it won't do that either)
I have gotten into disk utility to repair disk
I have tried resetting PRAM
nothing... we are on a network in a school district so my next step is to re-image it but wondering if there is something else I should try first
if not then how do I backup files that are needed before I re-image
thanks, Cindy

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
     a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 11
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 12
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 13
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Mac G3 plays startup music but nothing on screen

Hi,
Basically, my friend gave me this Mac G3 tower (Blue one) and showed me round his that it worked. When I got home and plugged it all in, I turned on the G3. It then played the start-up music but then displayed nothing on screen.
Does anyone know why this is happening? It works perfectly fine with my friends monitor.

Hi Don,
I'm having a similar problem with a B&W 350 MHz (rev 1 I think). I get the start up tone and nothing appears on the monitor. Not sure if the machine is actually booting or not.
I am trying to repair this machine for a friend. They had been having a problem with the machine booting into a blue screen. I suspected a corrupt directory, so I ran Disk Utility (from another machine) and also Disk Warrior. Both Disk Utility's Disk Repair feature and Disk Warrior found problems. Disk Warrior was able to successfully rebuild the directory.
I had removed the hard drive from the machine and put it in an external casing in order to run Disk Repair and Disk Warrior. Upon putting the hard drive back into the B&W and booting the machine, I was able to successfully boot the machine into Tiger. I tested the machine for a few minutes and it seemed to work fine.
Next, I ran software update and installed a new version of Safari and then after the required re-boot, tried to repair disk permissions. During the repair of disk permissions, the machine froze up completely. The clock stopped ticking and there was no mouse or keyboard response. I tried using the re-boot button on the front of the machine, but the machine would not fully re-boot. I get a boot tone, but no video.
I tried re-setting the CUDA chip by pressing the re-set button on the logic board, but to no avail.
Finally, I did take the battery out and had it tested at Radio Shack. The battery is showing a good 3.6 volts.
I have a second B&W (300 MHz) that is basically doing the same thing. Do you know what could be causing the lack of video signal?
Cheers,
Thomas

Booting still on dark blue screen

Hi. i have a jammed booting set-up. nothing open .
- i make disk repair on dvd install.
- i repaired permission.
and this problem still the same.
this problem came when i tried to reboot the system from stand by mode ...
i perform one time by disconnect the power cord and all other wire. with the dvd =press C to passed the two trying ....
Reboot and after five minutes the screen came blue , since nothing else than the deep blue screen..
Sound like materiel or os system problem. ???

Hi, tough to tell what it is, but try a Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go.
Have you booted off the Install Disk by holding the *d key* down at boot-up, (not the c key), and run the extended Apple HW Test? Some Install disks require holding the Option key at bootup to select the AHT. Some Macs came with separate AHT CDs.

Nokia 5800 Boot-Up problem"""""

Hi....
Had alarm set for this morn,turned phone off last night,(as I,ve done many times).Alarm went off...silenced alarm,ok.Then I got an option of "Do you want to turn phone on"?...I hit yes...and thats my problem.
Have read thru all the posts regarding boot-up problems...all to no avail...
Have tried a full reset but can,t turn the phone off..all I,m getting is a Blank White screen.
I have,nt downloaded anything recently and currently have the firmware up-dated to the latest..(51.1)
Have taken the battery out,also...but again to no avail...
Is there anything else I can try.
Thanking You....
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi and thanks for replying...
I have removed memory card but theres still nothing happening...
Since my topic starter,Ihad the battery out...just replaced it...done a hard reset...and now it has booted up...
Next step is to swap all my contacts from Sim to Phone....
While re-booting it took longer than before to boot...but at least its on.......don,t know what the prob was....will keep you up-dated if it goes again..
Will chech for up-dates etc....in the mean-time..
Many Thanks....

Unmountable Boot Volume on XP and screen goes blank before repair begins

The XP Windows partition was seemingly working fine until I turned on the laptop this afternoon. Took a minute or so longer to boot than usual and I was prompted when it did load to update Acrobat, which I did and it rebooted. Took longer to boot, perhaps two or three minutes and I received an Unmountable Boot Volume error. I rebooted a few more times, same result. I tried system restore to three previous dates over past ten days and was told after attempted reloading that it had failed and I should try another day. Worried about my data, I went to safe mode to back up C: drive.
The general advice from MS is to use the Windows installation CD to repair the boot sector. With the CD in, Windows will boot and show my normal desktop and files, though will on perhaps the third item to load to memory, the screen goes blank and the loading seems to continue, as I hear sounds though not sure if it is the programs or the repair.
There does seem to be an ability for it to boot, just not maintain it through full load. Any suggestions short of reinstalling windows would be welcomed. Thank you.

I was unistalling some usless programs when my laptop died & when I turned it on I had unmountable boot volume 0x000000ED (the blue screen)
If I hit repair windows it goes to a black screen with the mouse (nothing else)
Now I tried f8 & then did command prompt but after it had gone to the loading files screen it had gone back to the blue screens with unmountable boot volume 0x000000E
I DL windows 7 repair but how do I get it to install when I cant get past the blue screen?
so i decide to repair it my self and then i found this great solution what helps me

When I power up my 2008 Mac Pro I get the "welcome", chime, fan goes on, a light goes on on my Apple monitor and then nothing - black screen. Whats going on?

When I power up my 2008 Mac Pro I get the "welcome chime", fan comes on, a light comes on on my Apple moniter and then nothing - black screen. What,s going on?

what you describe as the "welcome chime" is the indicator that your Mac has passed the Power-On Self test, and if a suitable source of software can be found, booting is likely.
If the screen stays dark, the most likely explanation is a graphics card failure. But it could also be caused by a backlight failure in the LCD, so be sure you try shining a bright light at the screen to be check whether the picture is there, but just not illuminated.
Graphics card failure will end the boot-up process in some cases, and not have an impact in others. Two external indications you can use when your display is not working are: The Caps Lock key, which is under the control of Mac OS X, and the Control-Eject dialog box shown below. Note that the default is Shutdown, so a Mac that shuts down in response to Control-Eject followed by Return is working fine.

Yosemite installed on iMac purchased with Mavericks now takes 2 minutes to boot and give the login screen.

Downloaded and installed os x yosemite on iMac that was purchased originally with Mavericks. When power button is pressed I get start up audio tone and then the the black screen with the white apple symbol with the progression bar. The bar moves very slowly two about one third and then the mouse cursor appears and there it stalls for around two minutes. After the wait the login screen appears and it operates normally. This whole process before update would only take maybe 30 seconds.
If I try the web recovery process it will revert back to Mavericks any suggestions on what this might be. I do have an external Mac passport pro external drive that does have time machine enabled and has been there for months.
Thanks

After spending a number of hours with Apple Care personnel I was connected with a supervisor and finally got the iMac to boot up on every attempt and in a reasonable amount of time. Login screen now comes on in 30 to 40 seconds and computer is usable within a total time of 1 minute to 1minute 30 seconds.
Here was the process. Tried to download whole operating system with reinstall from utilities menu at power on and at 7 hours progress bar stalled at one third the way. Reason, time machine external hard drive was still connected during process. Disconnected all external connections except power and tried download again. This time whole operating system downloaded in 15 to 20 minutes. Yosemite installed and rebooted automatically and booted to login screen, signed in then to desktop, but boot took around five minutes. Shutdown and connected all peripherals, i.e.. ext. HD, DVD, printers and tried to start. iMac stalled at 2 minutes into progression bar with white apple symbol before login screen. Removed peripherals and tried again and still stalled and would not boot.
What was done to correct is as follows. Started iMac in Safe Mode, cleared all items in cache from Macintosh HD/Library folder and System /Library folder, system start up items, launch agents, and launch daemons contents cleared, removed printers in system preferences, ran disk utilities verify and repair of disk and disk permissions. Shutdown and removed power from iMac. With no peripherals system then booted normally. Reconnected peripherals while iMac was still on and added printers back to system preferences and all is well.
So it seems only reasonable that the downloading problem was hindered by the time machine external hard drive, to which an Apple rep. agreed and the extremely slow boot up or stalled boot up was caused by items in the start up and launch folders. I will state here that I was using my ISP's anti virus software for the Mac which was in the launch folders and most likely was causing the boot up problems.

Problem with matrix/screen in Qosmio F55-Q502

Hello
For a few weeks I have strange problem with matrix/screen in my laptop.
The matrix flickers very often - no matter if power cable is plugged or not.
The screen is full bright and suddenly it starts to blink - it is getting darker, than lighter, usually for few/dozen seconds. It does it when nobody touches it or when I work on it.
It very annoying and making eyes tired - it does it very quickly and there are few levels of screen brightness.
Moreover sometimes the screen turns off - You can see what is on desktop but the screen is very very dark (but not blank or completely switched off). It happens without any reason - sometimes just in the middle of working, sometime for example when I touch (not pull) the power cable between laptop and power supply.
Then, the only way to get back to normal brightness of screen id to close the lid just for half a second and open it
- matrix lights then normally, but can "turns off" moment later and I must do it once again - sometimes even few times..
After "action" with lid screens seems like nothing ever happen..
Does anyone have idea what is the cause of such behaviour or how to diagnose it in details?
Or maybe solve this problem?
Best regards
300m

Sounds like the Backlight or Inverter is failing or there is a loose connection.
Is the unit under warranty? Send it to an ASP for repair.
You should avoid repairing it yourself, the backlight is very high voltage!

3 yr old macbook pro boot up problems

Hi, I bought a 13” macbook pro 3 yrs ago.. Its running the latest version of Lion.
I have a boot up problem.
Initially the boot up sound will go off and get stuck on a white screen.
I’ve left it on for 30mins….it took me to a disk disk utility screen…
I’ve clicked on repair disk….after about 15mins
Its saids
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume could not be verified completely
Then I restart….now… not only does it get suck on the white screen, but the boot up sound keeps repeating
Im currently living in Hong Kong, what should I do now, and if it requires repairs…how much would It cost.
Thanks,
WB

I don't know what happened. It is not a common occurrence. It can be caused by power outages, abnormal shutdowns, software glitches, etc.
I would think seriously about a backup strategy for the future:
Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Boot up problems - nothing on screen!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for